Time stamps
Of course, time stamps are important. What Smartmatic was saying was that it’s not the only thing that matters.
The source of the problem is that the PCOS clocks were set in the warehouse in Cabuyao. So that’s two issues right there. first, you’re configuring 82,200 machines. It’s pretty inevitable that a few of those set-ups will be screwy. which is what we’re seeing here. a few machines out of a whole boatload are showing errors.
Second, the PCOS machines are booted up all across the country, far from anyone who can fix the clock settings. So, pragmatically speaking, even if you did see the problem during the printing of the zero report, there really isn’t anything you can do about it.
So, does the timestamp affect the accuracy of the count? it doesn’t. what it does is affect the credibility of the count. obviously, as we see happening now, peopl will come up and say the results were pre-fabbed, despite the successful zero reporting.
Here is where we turn to the interlocking security features of the system.
first, we assume that ppl are there when the elections happened, and therefore they know when the e.r.s were printed.
second, people were present for the actual printing also.
third, and of course there’s the audit.
unfortunately, none of things matter when you’ve lost and you’re trying to make a point.
My concern is that since date/time could not accurately determine the time the ballots are casted, we will never know if there we’re ballots already entered cast beffore 10th of May. Plus, Smartmatic’s incompetence to properly secure the PCOS machine after vting and counting gives more credibility to fraud in the election. I just didn’t feel that Smartmatic did their job as they are expected to.
i understand how u feel john. but remember, each pcos was zeroed out and an initialization report printed BEFORE use to count ballots. so, theoretically, the scenario you fear shldnt happen at all, otherwise, sa zero-out pa lang, huli na.
Thanks for this clarification. As an IT security person myself, I understand that while there might be instances where the PCOS’ clock is skewed by a few hours, Smartmatic still has the logs on the server indicating the date and time it received the PCOS transmission, assuming that each PCOS machine has a unique identifier and that the server’s clock is synchronized to a reliable source. They might want to use that information to determine if any PCOS machine transmitted earlier than what was expected.
Of course, the numbers have to tally in the regional and national levels or else it’s going to be very obvious.
Forgive me for playing the Devil’s advocate but I have to ask scenarios just to clear my suspicion of fraud. Thank you for understanding where I am coming from. I firmly believe that if fraud did happen, that it happened in the local level. National results are accurate to my understanding. Other cases can also be pinpointed out such as the CF cards. As per Smartmatic, these FC cards are tamper proof which we know aren’t based on this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifJw0r0rz_I Now, Smartmatic and the company featured in the video may not be the same but are they really that far apart from each other? Frankly speaking the whistleblower, in my POV, is not a very credible person. But we haven’t identified this person yet. I believe we must identify this person to give more clarity in to the situation. If he thinks his life would be in danger, I think it laready is. I think the people that are out against him already knows who he is. If he is indeed an employee of comelec, we will be able to know how it is possible for him and his group to manipulate things. Don’t get me wrong, for the most part, Comelec did an excellent job during elections. I just am not satisfied with the service of Smartmatic. It could be true that there re no cheating happened but the incompetence of Smartmatic gave rise to these *crap* that we all have been hearing.
Perfectly all right to be devil’s advocate, John. And as I said, it’s important to have all these issues threshed out.
On a side note, I’ve seen the Diebold video you’re referring to. If you notice, the only reason they were able to hack into it was because there was an executable program embedded in the card. Which meant that Diebold had a backdoor built into the card. Without that, it’s pretty safe to assume that the card would have remained un-hacked.
So, what we need to do is to have Smartmatic reveal the contents of the cf cards. We in the COMELEC know that there is no such executable program in the CF cards we used, but in the interests of transparency, we should require that sort of disclosure.
Thank you for answering my questions Dir. Jimenez. Despite the attacks that Comelec has received all throughout this election, you have made yourself available and answer questions truthfully. Thank you and goodluck.
I do not know whether there was any cheating last election. I have not seen anything that definitely establishes any cheating on the counting by COMELEC. But the number of “glitches” is troublesome.
1. Because of an error in printing the official ballots, the UV authentication feature of the PCOS was disabled.
2. By default, the Smartmatic Machine requires the operator to enter a digital signature other than the one embedded in the machine, but COMELEC opted to disable this feature. Why would Smartmatic software require it if it was not important.
3. The machines are supposed to by 99.995% accurate, but apparently they have never been tested. The only time they were tested was the ten (10) ballot field test that resulted in discovery of faulty programming in the CF cards.
4. Because of the rush delivery of the CF cards, they could not be offered for inspection before delivery.
5. Machines with wrong time stamps.
6. Machines found where they are not supposed to be.
7. Destruction of election paraphernalia (ballots/defective CF cards) rather than returning the same so they could be accounted for.
I am not convinced there is cheating, but I do not think we should pay Smartmatic the full contract price, and I also think COMELEC is at fault for having promulgated some “questionable” policies, which should be reviewed.
Overall, I think we should use the same system again, this time with the BEI’s being supplied with Digital Signatures from a third party (not Smartmatic) to provide additional check and balance.